TO ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI

Published:First published in 1924 inLenin Miscellany II.

      Sent from Flums (Switzerland) to Christiania.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages409-410.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

July 25, 1916

Iwas long in answering your letter because, owing to
Nadya’s illness, we’d had to move into the mountains. I quite
agree with you that the role of Left-winger at the conference
with Huysmans will, in the main, be one of collecting
information.[1]This is more important than anything else.
The most important thing is to make noteson the spot, and
about everything. Collect each and every kind of document;
and do not forget for a single minute the need forfullinformation. The only way is to write down everything (even if
briefly) at once, on the spot, in a special notebook. Grimm
is not going: they didn’t give him a passport. That means
there is to be only one Left-winger. This makes his
responsibility all the greater. It will take great resolution and full
political clarity to carry on the line alone: you are the best
judge of whether these qualities are there. If they are, it
would be a good thing to “put” a couple of questions to
the vote: approve Zimmerwald; ditto Kienthal; condemn
the social-patriots, Hyndman and Co., Sembat and Co.,
Legien and Co., Plekhanov and Co. The same thing can also
be done in the form of questions. It’ll be up to you to decide
whether this can be done.

Pleasedrop me a couple of words about the receipt of
this postcard.

Alexandermust have taken all the addresses with him,
and will try and find out whether anything has been printed
in America about the Zimmerwald Left and get it, and
contact the Socialist Propaganda League, the Socialist
Labour Party,International Socialist ReviewandAppeal toReason. If you get this postcard and reply, we may perhaps
have time to write each other about what precisely it is
convenient to ask him to do there.

Onepersonal request: have you any publishing
connections? I have none. By way of earnings, I should like to have
either atranslation, or an article oneducationfor Nadya
(her illness requires aprolongedstay in the mountains, and
that is expensive).

Bestgreetings and good wishes. Nadya sends her regards.

Yours,V. Ulyanov

[1]Areference to the participation of a Left-winger from the
Norwegian Social-Democratic Party in the Conference of Socialists
of Neutral Countries.